Saturday, August 26, 2006

the separation of church and state is a "lie we have been told" to keep religious people out of politics. In reality, she said, "we have to have the faithful in government" because that is God's will. Separating religion and politics is "so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers."

Sorry Ms. Harris, but the separation of church and state isn't a lie, it was well thought out by the Founding Fathers to keep one religious group from forcing their beliefs on the rest of us.

Friday, August 25, 2006

1) ONE HOMESCHOOLING BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED?Ok, I have a confession to make here, I have never actually read a homeschooling book. We started off doing school at home and then I eventually found my way to home based education after talking with some long term homeschool Mom's. I don't think any ONE method will work with all kids. I homeschooled my two sons in totally different ways, as their learning styles and interest are different.

2) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULDN'T BE WITHOUT?The library. Who can afford to buy all the books? And the St. Martin Public Library is very homeschool friendly.

3) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT?So far I haven't bought anything I regretted, but I usually do tons of research before making a purchase.

4) ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR?EMC's Literature and the Language Arts the British Tradition.Note I will not be using their American Tradition it's totally biased against the South. Their Unit on the Civil War doesn't have ONE white Southern writer in the entire unit, and leads one to believe the only cause of the Civil War was slavery (They did stick a small portion of a speech by Robert E. Lee in their extra reading section). Over all most of the writers I studied in school are missing from the book, and are replaced with people I have never heard of and have no interest in reading after reading the excerpts from the book. No wonder kids today don't like to read, if this is the literature that is forced on them. I am so thankful I had the chance to review the book before buying it. Next year I will be buying books, instead of any one American Literature Book. We are doing World Literature this year which I am enjoying.

5) ONE RESOURCE YOU WILL BE USING NEXT YEAR?Power Glide Spanish Ultimate Year II we are doing Year I this year

6) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY?That's really hard, there are so many I want. I have a wholewish list of books I want to use next year at Amazon.com. I'll be buying History of a Free Nationfor sure though. While it's not perfect, it has tons of resource material and it at least attempts to explain the complex reasons behind events.7) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED?A clone (why stop at one, clones?) of ME, so I could do housework, teach and blog at the same time.

8) ONE HOMESCHOOLING CATALOGUE YOU ENJOY READING?Another deep dark secret, I don't use homeschooling catalogue's. I usually use the internet to find the materials I want.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Economist Milton Friedman is known for his work on macroeconomics, microeconomics, economic history, statistics, and for his advocacy of laissez-faire capitalism. In 1976 he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. His TV show Free To Choose is available on Google Video for free.

If you are studying economics as we are, I strongly encourage you to check it out.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Michael Skube in Writing Off Reading claims that many public school graduates lack the vocabulary and grammar skills that make successful college students.

Jay Mathews points out that "According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a national achievement test, reading and math scores for 17-year-olds have been stagnant the last 30 years" in his post Too Few Overachievers.

Which brings me to a post by Andew Young and Walter Block, Enterprising Education: Doing Away with the Public School System found at Ludwig von Mises Institute.

All the arguments in favor of a public provision of primary education prove to be unfounded and/or incorrect. The failure of the state to provide a high quality service to all (its explicit goal) has rendered public primary education illegitimate; and the immeasurable waste of resources and rejection of consumer desires has left public education borderline immoral. As well, if an educated citizenry is to be considered necessary for the operation of the republican government, then it is an inexcusable conflict of interest when elected officials are the ones in charge of providing that education. Furthermore, the argument of externalities and nonexcludability fails to buttress the case for socialist education. The only ethical, reasonable system for the provision of primary education is the free market.

Considering that public schools aren't doing a very good job of educating students one has to ask, why are they still around? Do you know any private business that could fail to deliver "the goods" for 30 years and not go bankrupt? The forecast for public schools as well as their students looks grim.

According to Ayn Rand

Of all the government undertakings, none has failed so disastrously as public education. The scope, the depth, and the evidence of this failure are observable all around us. To name three of its obvious symptoms: drug addiction among the young (which is an attempt to escape the unbearable state of a mind unable to cope with existence)--functional illiteracy (the inability of the average high-school or college graduate to speak English, i.e., to speak or write coherently)--student violence (which means that students have not learned what savages know to some minimal extent: the impracticality and immorality of resorting to physical force).In the face of such evidence, one would expect the government's performance in the field of education to be questioned, at the least, [but] the growing failures of the educational establishment are followed by the appropriation of larger and larger sums. There is, however, a practical alternative: tax credits for education.

Welcome Goddesses of Spring

Hail, and welcome! Green life returns to the earth blooming and blossoming once more from the soil. We welcome you,goddesses of spring, Eostre, Persephone, Flora, Cybele, in the trees, in the soil, in the flowers, in the rains, and we are grateful for your presence.

Prayer to the Winter Goddess

O! Mighty goddess, in silvery ice,watching over us as we sleep,a layer of shining white,covering the earth each night,frost on the world and in the soul,we thank you for visiting us.Because of you, we seek warmthin the comfort of our homes and hearths.

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About Alasandra

Former Homeschool MomEldest son has a Masters in Computer ScienceYoungest son has a B.A. Degree in History with a minor in Political Science